One Moment 'Til Gone
by DarkJisushiku
Summary: The Totetsu is a marveled creature that sustains life by eating human flesh... It was raining that night when he found her... A ragged child wanting one moment from the mysterious beast... [one-shot]


**Title: One Moment 'Til Gone  
  
Rating: PG-13**  
  
**WARNINGS:** _**Spoilers on Volume #3 and on.**_ If you haven't made it to Volume #3, then don't bother reading. (Heck, is there even an anime??)  
  
**Disclaimer:** Ooh, wish I may, wish I might! Please, give me Count D tonight! ::: loud, booming voice from the heavens roars, "WISH DENIED!"::: O, well, you heard him... ::tear:: I don't own him or anyone else out of PSoH... Boo who...  
  
**Author's Notes:** Okay, my first PSoH fic. I really love T-chan, the man- eating goat creature, so I finally wrote a fic dedicated to him. YAY! So this is T-chan's fic! Please, R&R!

**Setting:** Somewhere between volume #3 and volume #4. (Before Chris moves in with Leon).

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It was nighttime in Chinatown, but you couldn't tell that unless you lived there. The flashy, dazzling lights on the Oriental shops crept up the buildings and into the skies, creating a mystic dome over the city. This was perfection in the art of illusions, because this starry city mirage was one created by nature itself. The stars took on the appearnces of the lights and the lights took on the appearnces of the stars... Everything was melting into one another... Some would say that women were beauty incarnate - they were so very, very wrong. This marvelous city was beauty incarnate.  
  
But in a gloomy alley, east of a splendid petshop, a lone creature didn't have the compassion to notice such beauty. It was drizzling that night, and outside the alleyway, the starlight was reflection off of raindrops... Small rainbows were dancing on the walls of the buildings... But he could care less... Beauty could never override hungry.  
  
And, boy, _was_ he hungry...  
  
"Grrr...," his stomach moaned, and he patted it was surpebly-manicured hands. Long, slender fingers itched in to find themselves around a long, pursing throat and squeeze it until the pleasant _snap_ sounds... Then he gorge himself on the fresh blood sprouting from the jugular... And his sink his teeth into the silent chest to pull forth the even more silent heart... Aww, if he could just find a victim.  
  
But his craving was unfortunate to come during the night. The elegant Chinese man he stayed with had no time to lure in new prey at this unholy hour, and no matter how hard he wracked his brain for it, he couldn't recall that police officer's home address. So he was forced to wander this darkening streets with the rainfall as company, searching for the fresh meal he so longed for.  
  
"Um... are you all right?"  
  
The rare creature cocked its head to his left. In the midst of the gray rubble laid the frail thing. It looked more like little a stray kitten than any human he had ever seen. But the lack of fur and the stringy figure said otherwise. Bruised and scarred, the lack of courage just radiated from rattling bones. Easy prey for the gangs around here. The small amout of hair it did had was greasy, oily, and ratted. Dark, black eyes, hollow and blank like the inside of a dead well, looked at the marvelous creature.

Of course, why shouldn't she worship him? The golden jewelry of ancient men hung about him, coating his arms, his ankels, his face, his neck, his chest in shimmer and sparkle. The white wrap he wore as pants pursuded his legs in a chasing manner, longing to come and kiss his feet. His hair - no - _his mane_ was long in length, tawny-brown in color. Two perfectly curled horns graced his head. And his secretive eyes stared at her, disgusted that such a thing would come before him.  
  
"Uh... Mister, I asked if you were all right? Did you hear me?" she croacked, the scratchy tone irriating the godly beast's pointed ears.  
  
"Yes," he answered solemnly. He was leaning agaisnt the brick wall, eyes focused ahead of him, not on the girl. Or so it seemed...  
  
"Oh," she murmured. "Okay, that's good." She was figeting nervously; she had never been in such a wonderful presense.  
  
"Stop staring," he commented, seeing her gaze. "It's rude."  
  
Why, you must be wondering, he hadn't attacked her yet...? He was a man-eating beast known as the Totetsu, but he was also a marveled creature to all that knew his tale. The Totetsu was to revered and held sacred. One with such a reputation could not sully himself with the blood of such a pathetic being. He was a fierce hunter, not a vulture who preyed on the half-dead. There was no sport in killing something that was knocking on Hell's gates.

"I told you to stop staring."  
  
She made an incoherent squeak and lowered the dark eyes. The orbs paused on the clean feet, but suddenly returned to the filthy ground; such pale feet didn't deserved to be dirtied by her lowlife glance. He was royal and godly, something unwordly. And she was all too worldly. The crossing of their paths was an insult to the heavens above.  
  
The glide of padded feet brought the girl's gaze back to the creature. He was leaving. Just like that...  
  
"...hey..."  
  
A small hand tugged on his pant leg. It was a light, feathery touch... Not threatening or smothering... Just a human touch. And yet this human understood her place on the food chain... So why...?  
  
_I just want to... **live** for one moment..._  
  
Her thoughts tasted of bitter pain. She had a past of misery, sadness, and deceit. She must have been beaten and tossed out... Hated by her mother, her father, his siblings, her neighbors, her peers, her superiors, even hated by the other city scum. Nothing could change that, and yet she wasn't asking for him to change this.  
  
She was asking for_ a moment_. Just one moment. The chance to have many moments were lost to her... If he gave her this, she'd at least have something to look back on, other than the time when that kind gentleman gave her that crisp, brand-new twenty dollar bill ... It'd be something to hold on to when she was cold and wet in a flimsy cardboard box.

Humans spend their entire lives collecting moments - memories of past happiness. She must be thirteen and yet, she could have only have about a handful of good memories. Her very posture screamed that her past was created from angst... No one loved her, no one cared for her... She could probably only recall four moments of pleasure...

And he at least give her a fifth... But was he willing to waste that one minute of his time on such a low being? What would he get out of this? Nothing... nothing... She'd get the moment, and he'd lose it. But... To a beast of legend, one moment was really nothing in the scheme of world...  
  
But it would only be _one_ moment... one pathetic, silly moment lost to present and claimed by the past. It'd hold no future, no promise. Just one moment compared to the thousands minutes she will spend in agony. It would do nothing, help nothing, save nothing...  
  
... and also _hurt nothing_...  
  
He turned around - the hand fell limp by her side.  
  
"I can not give you a future," he purred, although she already knew this. And she wasn't asking for a future. But even though he wasn't a Kirin, he was willing to grant her this one wish.  
  
Nailed fingers gripped her shoulders harshly, as he jerked her up into his arms. Her lips parted and a soft gasp escaped from the hollow depths. He pursuded those chapped lips with his own, kissing her passionately... He watched her eyes widen, then close. The figure in his slender hands became a lifeless doll... One warm tongue slid into her mouth, caressing her own... Then it pulled back and teeth came in its place...  
  
The bite was painless... And the blood was sweet. She could taste it. Her own life liquid danced on her lips, then on to her tongue... He could taste it too. The blood that had been poured many times before by various humans. But the suffering had always stung... And now... it just didn't hurt. It felt... _heavenly_. Like the water showering down on their two musty bodies, the blood showered down into their kiss... It was so... _otherwordly.  
_  
He pulled away and she touched one finger to the cut on her lips. It was so magical. But, of course, this was Chinatown, where love and dreams were sold to those who could afford them.  
  
"What... are you?" she breathed, falling from his arms on to the concret ground.  
  
"Hungry," he snarled, his eyes breaking away from hers. Again he tried walking away, but her hand fluttered back to his leg. Without turning around, he whispered, "I gave you your wish. Now allow me to leave. The yearning to hunt it making me irrtiable. You'd be best to release me."  
  
"Thank you," she muttered, ignoring the suggestion to let go of him. She had to give him something... Something in return for the pleasure he had given her... His own moment, made up of joy and happiness... How could she fulfill him in the way he had fulfilled her?

A long breath brough her back to the little alley and out of her thoughts. The creature was growing ashy, now famished. He had to find someone to sustain him until morning...

"You look... _pale_," she muttered, seeingthe sweat beads on his face and chest.  
  
"I must eat... I'm having a craving," he informed her, turning around to look at the trashbags that surrounded them.  
  
"I have nothing to give you," she whimpered, eyes watering. She just had to give him _something_... he had given her one second to know life... The creature kneeled beside her and she looked at his kingly eyes. "Nothing... but my own _flesh_..." Arms widened to greeted him.  
  
The long for human flesh overpowered his pride...  
  
Hands slinked around her neck... Deep inside the flesh, the pulse of flowing blood was felt. Then suddenly, the cold touch of metal tickled his hands. Peering at her neck, he noticed a heart-shaped locket around it... The only beautiful thing she had... He was certain that she could have no trouble pawning it off for a pretty dollar, but the fact that she hadn't said more than anything else about her... She wanted to be a child, held and protected... with a teddy bear, a blankie, and a stupid locket... She wanted to be taken care of...

_Your wish is my command, _he thought, cradling her frail body in his hands, as he contiued to strangle the peaceful girl. She made no attempt to stop him, but just relaxed as her life was in his careful hands...

All through the experience, he was gentle with the frail thing. He wasn't doing it because he cared or anything... He just didn't want to damage the sallow skin. Or at least that how he justified it... Softly, he began to grip her neck harder...

Her breathing was getting heavier, but a certain amount of moving serenity still enraptured her.

"Human...?" panted the creature, licking his lips in the lust for fresh meat. "What is your given title...?"

"I'm... Anastasia..."

"You, my delicious treat, are a gem among such petty, low beings..." _You know your place in this world... In this food chain..._

Finally, his hands tightened... Then... _SNAP_... and her miserable life had ended... One last look at the ragged thing left him speechless...  
  
One innocent smile was painted on her crinkled lips.  
  
So maybe there is solace in death... And he feasted.  
  
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When he reached his home, (a mystic petshop only a short walk from the bloodied alley) he couldn't explain the emotions that were engulfing him... He didn't regret his meal or anything quite like that... He just... felt sad that she was gone.

"Ah, T-chan... you're home," announced a voice in the back of the shop. The smell of incense and rare tea burned through his nostrils.

As he approached the living room behind the front of the store, the handsome human man awaited him, lounging on the old couch, sipping the tea. A variety of cakes and cookies were laid out before him...

The creature took a seat across from the man on a plush chair. The ancient clock on the wall said fifteen minutes after four in the morning, but it was five minutes slow.

"Did you get a meal that sastified you?" the man asked.

T-chan frowned, unable to answer that question completely and truthfully. Finally, he replied, "I found a meal..." And he fingered the hear-shape locket around his neck.

One silky eyebrow rose at the gesture, but didn't ask where the locket had came from... It was just one of those mysterious moments...

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**THE DAYLY TIMES PAGE A5 TUESDAY, JULY 10**  
  
_"... One homeless girl was found dead in an alleyway in Chinatown yesterday afternoon. The victim was found with her limbs torn off and her chest carved into. Her heart and other various organs were not in the corpse. According to the corner's report, the cause of death was her broken neck. Her body was supposedly mutilated after she was murdered...  
  
... Time of death was estimated around midnight, Sunday night..._

_... There is some theories on what happened... Some say it was a local gang's doing... One other idea is that professionals killed her to attain her organs and sell them on the black market... The police seem to think it was a psychotic murderer who killed her.  
  
... Officer Leon Orcot, of the S.F.P.D., had this to say: "Whoever did this was a bona fide psychopath. We [the Police Department] are making it our first priority to find this sicko. This girl's death will not be tolerated..."_  
  
Count D folded the newspaper. "It's amusing how no one notices something precious until it's _gone_..."  
  
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**THE END**  
  
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**A/N's: **R****E****V****I****E****W****!!! Pretty please w/ a cherry on top... ::smiles:::


End file.
